Definitions for hydronym

This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word hydronym

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hydronym(Noun)

the name of a river, lake, sea or any other body of water

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Hydronym

A hydronym is a proper name of a body of water. Hydronymy is the study of hydronyms and of how bodies of water receive their names and how they are transmitted through history. It can apply to rivers, lakes, and even oceanic elements.
More than most toponyms, as linguistic items hydronyms are very conservative, with successor peoples often retaining the name given a body of water. For example, Mississippi has passed from Native Americans to contemporary Americans. The names of large rivers are especially conserved, while the local names of small streams are less so.
As an example of hydronymy as a historical tool Kenneth Jackson identified a river-name pattern against which to fit the story of the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain and the pockets of survival of native British culture. Even in the eastern area of the heaviest and early Saxon settlement, major rivers like the Thames and the Trent preserve their pre-Saxon names. Jackson constructed a river map of Britain that enabled three principal areas of English settlement: the river valleys draining eastward, where British survivals are limited to the largest rivers, and Saxon settlement was early and dense, the highland spine, and a third region in which British hydronyms apply even to the smaller streams.